Tarot Garden

The Garden is located on the southern slope of the hill of Garavicchio, in the Tuscan Maremma. The work, dilated about 2 hectares of land, is a real "city" in which the sculptures-case mark the stages of the path colorful already standing out from the road in the wild natural landscape. At the foot of the hill of Garavicchio, access to the Garden is literally barred from the long wall of the entrance pavilion created by Mario Botta, consists of a double wall fence in tuff with a single large circular opening in the center, closed by a gate . The same Botta said that in the design of the entrance tried to interpret the feeling of "separation" between the garden and the outside world that Niki de Saint Phalle asked: the wall is then understood as a "threshold" to be crossed to enter in a "magical break" sharply divided from the reality of everyday life.

Following the inspiration had during the visit to the Park Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, ​​later reinforced by a visit to the Garden Park of Monsters of Bomarzo, Niki de Saint Phalle began the construction of the Tarot Garden in 1979.

By identifying in the Garden of the spiritual and magical dream of his life, Niki de Saint Phalle has been dedicated to the construction of twenty-two imposing figures in steel and concrete covered with glass, mirrors and colorful ceramics for more than seventeen years old, flanked, as well as several skilled workers, a team of famous names in contemporary art and especially by her husband], who died in [[1991]], which has created huge sculptures of metal structures and has integrated some elements of self-propelled mechanical assemblies with iron .

The Swiss architect Mario Botta, in collaboration with the architect Roberto Aureli Grosseto, designed the entrance pavilion - a thick enclosure wall with one large circular opening in the center, thought of as a threshold that divides the Garden markedly from everyday reality .

Only finished in the summer of 1996 resulted in the creation of the Garden, as well as an enormous amount of plant, at a cost of about 10 billion lire funded entirely by the author.

In 1997 Niki de Saint Phalle created the Foundation The Tarot Garden whose purpose is to preserve and maintain the work carried out by the sculptor. On 15 May 1998 the Tarot Garden was opened to the public

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